Chicago relatives ask Kim Foxx to investigate convictions from officer accused of misconduct

Relatives of incarcerated people in Chicago are asking outgoing Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx to reexamine their loved ones' cases that were investigated by an officer accused of multiple instances of witness tampering and misconduct.

Attorneys for the relatives and activists sent a letter to Foxx, naming more than a dozen people who are incarcerated whose cases are tied to Sgt. Brian Forberg, who retired in October, according to the Chicago Police Department. Forberg has been named in numerous court documents accusing him of pressuring witnesses into false testimony.

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A number of the cases related to Forberg are now being investigated by special prosecutors, according to the Chicago Tribune. At the time of his employment, Forberg was one of the highest-paid active officers in the Chicago Police Department, according to CBS News. During his career, Forberg has had 38 allegations made against him for misconduct.

"We’re tired,” Lakisha Jackson, whose brother Kevin Jackson is serving a 45-year murder sentence, said during a call for justice at the Leighton County Court Building on Tuesday via the outlet. “We want all this put behind us today.”

In a statement, Foxx's office said it reviews “matters individually based on all available evidence and the law in our effort to rebuild trust in our justice system.”

“We understand the concerns of the community and will continue to fight for the best and fairest outcomes for every resident,” the statement said to the city paper.

Family members invoked a long-standing trend of misconduct and corruption out of the Chicago Police Department during the call to justice on Tuesday.

“Kim Foxx, I voted for you from the time that you started,” Norma Scales, the aunt of a man who has accused Forberg of framing him, said. “Please step up before you step out.”

The conviction of Rico Clark, a man accused of shooting and killing 19-year-old Damion Kendricks in 2006, is now before a review panel. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison, and he has been claiming his innocence for 16 years. Two of the three witnesses who named Clark as the shooter recanted their statements at trial, testifying that two Chicago police detectives forced them to make statements — one of them being Forberg. Clark's brother, Lester Owens, who was also arrested by Forberg, is fighting a wrongful conviction, as well.

In Kevin Jackson's case, he was convicted of shooting and killing a man and injuring another at a gas station in 2001, but several witnesses have recanted their testimony since then. One witness at the gas station stated that investigators, including Forberg, threatened her with detainment and would place her baby in custody if she did not provide a statement against Jackson, per court documents.

While Jackson's request to file a post-conviction petition was denied by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2021, the court raised concerns over the level of allegations of police misconduct in the Chicago Police Department. Since the department entered the federal consent decree 4 1/2 years ago, its Bureau of Internal Affairs has launched more than 11,000 investigations into allegations of misconduct.

Supreme Court Justice P. Scott Neville wrote in 2021 that prosecutors have "an obligation to investigate those allegations to ascertain whether the statements and grand jury testimony identifying petitioner as the offender were the product of witness intimidation or coercion.”

“I do not believe that prosecutors can sit idly by and allow serious complaints of witness intimidation and coercion to go uninvestigated,” he added.

Some of the most notable corrupt officers from the Chicago Police Department include Jon Burge, Ronald Watts, and Reynaldo Guevara. Burge and his "Midnight Crew" are believed to have coerced false confessions from more than 100 people, mostly black men, between the 1970s and 1990s. Several of these men have testified that they were tortured by Burge.

Several of Guevara's and Watts's convictions have been overturned in recent months. Guevara, in particular, has been linked to dozens of wrongful conviction claims during his time as a Chicago police detective. He is facing federal lawsuits, and Chicago paid $76 million to hire lawyers and settle cases related to his old cases.

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In February, the National Criminal Justice Association marked that prosecutors had moved to dismiss at least 226 convictions that involved Watts, who served as a Chicago police sergeant. Watts was arrested in 2021 on federal charges of stealing government funds from an undercover informant after years of him being suspected of extortion and planting guns and drugs.

Watts and Guevara are on Foxx's "Do Not Call" list of more than 150 law enforcement officers deemed unreliable, but Forberg is not. Foxx, who is viewed as being soft on crime, announced in April that she would not seek reelection.